You’re always secretly rooting for Lowell Dean. Ten-years ago, he parlayed a contest win into a nationwide Cineplex release of WolfCop, an unexpected success that resulted in a sequel, and a subsequent career. In a sense, he’s living the dream. Before our screening of Dark Match at Fantasia 2024, the programmer made sure to mention WolfCop, a homage to those humble origins of yesteryear. Thus, it feels bad to suggest that one of his films is not particularly great. Certainly, it’s fair, and it’s definitely honest, but it still feels a little bit harsh to do so. It sucks to feel like you’re kicking someone who beat the odds.

Dark Match is not particularly great. Much like WolfCop all those years ago, the film is tailored towards a very specific audience, but this time, it may not necessarily work for those outside that niche. There’s a high concept at play here. A group of small-time wrestlers head for a payday out at a secluded manor in the prairie woods, where they meet a mysterious leader known as The Prophet (WWE legend Chris Jericho). The Prophet has sinister plans for them, and the group soon finds themselves embroiled in a nightmare scenario.

The real issue with Dark Match is a tonal imbalance. The film is not quite campy enough to be fun, but not quite serious enough to be taken truly seriously. The wrestling is probably pretty solid, but it is obfuscated by the film’s gory exterior. Alyshia Issa and Stephen Ogg are quite strong, which gives the film a sense of momentum that it ultimately squanders by a truly terrible ending. I could not believe that the last five minutes were the last five minutes. It’s a miss, but it’s a miss that you really wished wasn’t one.